1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a molded slide having a slidability and load bearing capability making it suitable for use in moving furniture or other heavy objects across a floor.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
It is often necessary to move office furniture, such as desks, bookcases, partitions and filing cabinets, about an office. The need to move the furniture may arise from a desire to reconfigure the office space or to perform maintenance, such as carpet cleaning or carpet removal and replacement. For example, modular carpet is designed to be installed in occupied office areas with furniture and equipment in place. During installation, furniture and equipment are moved a short distance or lifted while the old flooring is removed and squares of new modular carpet installed. The office furniture or equipment is then slid or lowered into place, permitting installation of new carpet without breaking down work stations, disrupting telecommunication or computer hookups and avoiding business interruptions.
With the exception of moving furniture up and down stairways, it has been found that placing a slide under the object and sliding the furniture or equipment is preferred over using a hand truck or some other device for lifting the furniture. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,469,599 to Wurdack, ultra high molecular weight polyethylene was identified as being suitable for use as a slide for moving furniture when provided as a flat plate having a thickness between about 0.05 inches and 0.15 inches and having a diameter from about 4 inches to 10 inches. The disks were cut from sheets of ultra high molecular weight polyethylene which are formed industrially by skiving large blocks of the plastic. A non-slip pad of synthetic plastic material was then glued to the top surface of the disk.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,802,669 to Wurdack, polyoxymethylene, an acetal homopolymer, was identified as being suitable for use as a slide for moving furniture when provided as a molded plate with an upturned edge forming a recess into which a non-slip pad could be glued. This was an improvement over the '599 patent, inter alia, in that ultra high molecular weight polyethylene cannot be molded and machining a recess into the top surface was cost prohibitive. The plate in the '669 patent had a thickness between about 0.05 inches and 0.15 inches and had a diameter between about 4 and 10 inches. The homopolymer had a coefficient of friction of about 0.3 and a pressure versus velocity of about 750 or better. The coefficient of friction is a measure of how well the plate slid and the pressure versus velocity number is an indication of how well the plate stood up under loading conditions. The slidability and load bearing capabilities of the '669 slide were better than the '599 slide. However, the recess in the plate was shallow and the non-slip pad was made out of foamed ethylvinylacetate or latex rubber and was stiff. In use, the legs or base of the object being moved tended to slip off the slide and break the rim off the plate.
The load bearing demands on a slide can be extreme as some office furniture and equipment is very heavy (e.g., lateral files weighing over 2,000 pounds) calling for a slide with better load bearing capability. Slidability demands can also be extreme for example when the furniture and other equipment must be slid over a concrete floor. Hence, there remains room for improvement to meet the full range of moving conditions in addition to tackling the slipping-off the slide problem.